“What are the possibilities for small cultural and arts centers to exist in today’s world? Is there a way for them to exist without entering into the never-ending economic game of competition or selling them as social entrepreneurial enterprises?” Social Kitchen. January 2013.
For Immediate Release. Somewhere over the Caribbean Sea & Atlantic
Dear ARC Reader/Supporter/Partner/Artist/Collaborator/Friend:
Early last year an email came through our inbox from e-flux, one of the largest networks for the global contemporary art industry. It had the following subject: Questions to the world from a small social and cultural center in the Far East. The message originated from a small ‘21st Century Social and Cultural Center’ in Kyoto, Japan called ‘Social Kitchen‘. In the first two sentences, it addressed the concerns that they were facing as they moved into the year thinking about organizational sustainability, securing a creative community, moving forward with an agency that mirrored their mission of education, cultural development and freedom of expression.
The language stood out to us as powerful, vulnerable and self-aware. It is with our own self-awareness that we now have a similar experience to share with you, one that highlights the recent growth coupled with challenges that we have been facing over the last three years. Having encountered challenges around sustainability and the acquisition of funding through independent sources, we have decided to suspend the print production of ARC until we are able to secure finances that will offset its production, sustainable capacity expansion and autonomy.
This news can be viewed as disheartening, but we are choosing to see it as a brief pause — a space for us to think about need, value, knowledge transfer and the shifting creative space of the Caribbean. We will use this time to refocus, realign and re-engage with our creative community: cultural institutions, museums, creative professionals, non-governmental bodies, donors, foundations and philanthropists, — in a manner that reflects the intention, merit and history of ARC. This respite and quest for funding will ensure that the intrinsic value of the publication is retained while thinking about its cultural value as an open and democratic forum, an alternative museum; and critical space for scholarship, social activism, and community.
Over the last three years we have been able to secure a position that is unparalleled within the space of the Caribbean and its diasporas; ARC has become a conduit, an agent developing the social imaginary, recovering and highlighting multiplicities in practice that lead to a more encompassed reading of the creative Caribbean. The suspension in print does not mean that we will step back in our programming; in fact, we are fortifying our involvement in annual projects like New Media, Transforming Spaces, the Talks Program at VOLTA NY, and Caribbean Linked, while engaging with new editorial and media partnerships, ensuring our placement in the wider framework of activism, community development, education, outreach and pedagogy.
The next few months will be spent engaging with these funding bodies in order to understand the ideal way forward. We want to maintain everything that has been crucial to our mission so far — to offer an unmediated, accessible and vibrant platform dedicated to creative expression — while giving us more time to consider content development, collaborations and a chance to offer our audiences something new; something unimagined and immediate. Something that we have witnessed over the past three years is the harnessing of the creative community bound together by astute care, generosity, curiosity and intellect.
As we modify the model and seek out new partnerships, sponsorship and underwriting to continue the support of this invaluable platform, we are also ramping up the delivery of original content through our website, which will undergo a transition in early 2015. We have secured three dynamos as editorial and web interns including Katherine Agard, Varala Maraj and Natalie Willis, and we have fortified our part-time editorial staff with the confirmed commitments from Dr. Marsha Pearce, Dr. Leanne Haynes, Katherine Kennedy, Blake Daniels, Tiana Reid and Sasha Solomon through the end of 2014.
Our core advisors are also working hard to ensure that the mission that we have set out to achieve is one that is practical and contemporary given recent economic concerns and restrictions. They have worked tirelessly to open new doors for ARC, and we want to keep our eye on the larger creative ecosystem and mechanism that we are trying to find a balance in.
We do not view our contribution as something that lies outside of the other formidable and long-standing developments and institutions that have constituted this space. We find solidarity with emerging informal initiatives that are struggling to maintain financial viability, and recognize the imperative interconnectivity that exists in our missions.
Once support through independent funding has been secured, we will resume with the production of an annual edition which will include the same dynamic and critical content. The model that we are currently studying focuses on unique artists’ projects, critical essays, portfolios, and archival; and specialized contributions which point to ARC’s reinvigorated editorial mandate re-engaging practically with our creative environment.
Please note that if you are a current subscriber or if you have signed up for our annual subscription for the year of 2014, this automatically means that your order is in our system, and when the annual edition becomes available in 2015, you will receive it without any additional charges. This also applies to libraries and universities who have secured an annual subscription through EBSCO host and other means. If you would like to request a refund please contact us at info@arcthemagazine.com.
We look forward to sharing our upcoming progress reports with you as we work faithfully to secure a healthy and productive future for ARC. We hope to be able to nurture, protect and engage with this act of love in ways that we have not before, and we promise it is going to be quite a journey.
Thank you for your support over the years. If you would like to speak with us about ways in which your contribution can help us start this new model we would be happy to have a conversation with you.
Sincerely Yours,
Holly Bynoe & Nadia Huggins
Co-Founders
ARC Magazine